winter.

This winter has been challenging. Christmas and New Year's can be stressful on Emmett; visiting new places, faces, and not having his usual routine. Having the wide open time during the school break can be hard for him too. He doesn't know what to expect or what to do with himself. So he becomes more anxious and on edge. It's easy for him to become overwhelmed and transitions are harder.

He was pretty brave sitting on Santa's lap this year. And he joined the other kids on stage at our church party to sing a couple of Christmas carols. :) He also tried sledding and seemed to like it! Matt sat with him on the sled and they went down a pretty tame hill.

School: This has definitely been a challenge over the winter. Emmett has been waking up crying or melting down because he does not want to go to school. He will beg me to stay home. He has also had accidents in his pants both at school and at home. Something is going on and I haven't figured out what yet. It could be sensory overload. It could be the kids. Not sure yet. He also has not eaten his lunch most days because he is not asking for help to open his containers. :( So he will sit there in silence wishing someone would help him. This breaks my heart. His teacher has also informed me that his is usually a loner outside during recess. He wanders around by himself or just watches others play. He still has not made any real friendships with other students.

On the flip side, he is very interested in reading and is getting better at writing and drawing. He is starting to draw people. :) His people are the cutest things. He is also interested in numbers, which is great! Maybe he will be the only one in our family who is good at math....

At home, Emmett is getting better and trying to dress and undress himself. This can make him very frustrated, but his is dealing with that frustration a bit better. We give him tons of praise when he does anything frustrating (to him) on his own. Go bud! He has also tried taking a shower a couple of times! Matt or I will go in with him and he is loving it. I think he really likes the feeling of water hitting his back.  

little belly :)

Silent meltdowns/shutdowns have been happening more frequently. He will either curl up into a ball or will run back to his room and hide under his covers. I usually give him some time before I try to make things better. Sometimes the meltdowns force him to take a break and clear his mind. 

Feeding therapy evaluation nightmare: At the end of February, Emmett was finally up for a feeding therapy evaluation at Fraser (we have been on the waiting list for 9 months!). I picked him up from school and we drove to the Eden Prairie location for the eval. I tried to prep Emmett as best as I could, but I don't know if he fully understood what he was going to have to do. When we got to Fraser things seemed fine. The evaluation started and the first half was mostly asking me questions while Emmett played on the floor. He seemed pretty quiet. Then the therapist started getting out some food and utensils and telling Emmett to come sit at the table. He was really hesitant and had this look on his face like he was going to cry. He was so nervous and stressed about the strange food on the table that he completely messed his pants. Diarrhea right then and there. So the last half hour of the appointment was me rushing Emmett to the bathroom and cleaning him up and calming him down. I threw his soiled clothes in the garbage, apologized to the therapist, and we left. Lovely.

Aside from potty training, I know feeding therapy is going to be very stressful for him. He is going to hate it and I will probably hate watching him being miserable. I know this is going to improve his diet and help him to be less sensitive with foods, but I hate seeing him struggling. He will be going once a week so we'll see what happens.